Anatomical relations between the frontal sinus drainage pathway and the agger nasi cell

Roberta De Carvalho Ximendes,Hugo Canhete Lopes,Leonardo Balsalobre,Mayra Soares Ferreira,Fernando Oto Balieiro,Aldo Cassol Stamm,Joao Mangussi Gomes

doi:10.15406/joentr.2018.10.00326

Roberta De Carvalho Ximendes, Hugo Canhete Lopes + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.15406/joentr.2018.10.00326

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Journal: Journal of Otolaryngology-ENT Research	Publication Date: May 1, 2018
Citations: 5	License type: cc-by

Abstract

Anatomical relations between the frontal sinus drainage pathway and the agger nasi cell

Highlights

The anatomy of the frontal sinus drainage pathway is extremely variable
Being unfamiliar with the anatomy of the frontal recess and all its possible variations can often result in inadequate treatment of the disease or even severe complications, such as orbital, vascular and skull base injuries.[2,3,4]
Defining the anatomical relations between the frontal sinus drainage pathways and the agger nasi cell (ANC) greatly facilitates the understanding of its anatomy and the planning of surgical approaches to the frontal sinus.[8,9]. We propose that this drainage can basically described as occuring in three different manners: 1) medial to the ANC; 2) posterior to the ANC; and 3) posteromedial to the ANC

Summary

Introduction

The anatomy of the frontal sinus drainage pathway is extremely variable. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the endoscopic anatomy of the frontal sinus drainage pathway in human cadavers, having the ANC as the main anatomical landmark. Being unfamiliar with the anatomy of the frontal recess and all its possible variations can often result in inadequate treatment of the disease or even severe complications, such as orbital, vascular and skull base injuries.[2,3,4]. The recess is limited by the agger nasi cell (ANC) and the frontal beak. Its medial limit is represented by the vertical lamella of the middle turbinate and the lateral lamella of the cribriform plate.[2,6] Despite all these artificially fixed limits, the anatomy of the frontal recess is highly variable. The frontal drainage pathway is surrounded and influenced by the presence or absence and degree of penumatization of various cells and lamellas – ethmoid bulla, suprabullar, fronto-bullar, supra-orbital, fronto-ethmoidal cells, and the ANC itself.[7]

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